Yes, I had one of those strange and crazy days and, actually, it isn’t over quite yet. Today was supposed to be a mega-good day built around the Old Timers Game at Yankee Stadium beginning at 1:45 and then the Yankees vs. Angels game at 3:55. I was pretty hyped about both. My anticipated schedule was to head out to the stadium no later than 12:45 so I would be there in time for the introductions.
To start off - for reasons I don’t understand, I didn’t go to bed last night until 4:00am. I just wasn’t sleepy. I actually had to make myself go to bed but when my head hit the pillow I immediately went to sleep. I woke up at exactly 10:00 and it was nasty and gray looking out and the forecast was for thunderstorms later in the afternoon. Damn.
I had breakfast, scanned the 3 newspapers and then went online on my iBook to check my email and for whatever reason AOL was acting strange, not that that’s so unusual. I actually had to get into my AOL account via the internet rather than directly from the program. Weird. After I read the emails it was time to shower and get ready to head out. It was still nasty and had begun to lightly rain.
After I showered I put on the usual Yankee garb and began pondering whether I should even go out to stadium for the Old Timers game because, if it was rained out, I would then have a long long wait at the stadium to see if the regular game would be played. The rain stopped and I determined I would indeed head out.
Just before I left the apartment I went to the iBook to check email one last time and ... gasp ... it was completely dead ... frozen up. What the hell? It was plugged into the power source so it couldn’t be the battery, so what happened? Man, this sucked because I use the iBook for internet access now (the reasons are too complicated to explain now) and I always take it with me when I travel and on Thursday I head down to Columbia, SC.
Oh man. I quickly found the start-up disk and inserted it and nothing happened and, of course, I couldn’t get the disk out. And, it was time to head out.
So I did. Just a few yards from the subway entrance it started to pour, so I raced into the station. At least I didn’t get soaked. Do I go back or do I head out to the Bronx? I took a deep breath and opted to head out to The Bronx.
When I got on the local train, which I always take up to 125th Street, I took out my iPhone so I could play some solitaire and, dammit, I had forgotten to refresh the program while I was outside, so it wouldn’t work. Damn. Oh well, nothing I could do about it. I passed the time by writing a bitch note to myself on the iPhone.
We made great time to 125th Street and the connecting 4 train wasn’t jam-packed as it usually is. When we got to the 161st/Yankee Stadium and got off we were horrified to discover that the MTA assholes had forgotten to open the two major exits from the platform so we had to go inside the station and down really crowded narrow stairs. People were really pissed. It was 1:30. What more could go wrong, thought I?
It was very lightly raining and when I got to my seat the infield was covered with a tarp but, and a big but, it stopped raining and began to clear up. OK. I would just settle in and listen to the pregame broadcast on my trusty Walkman. Got the ear pods out of one pocket and reached into the other to get the Walkman, and ... it wasn’t there. I had left it in the apartment. Fuck and double Fuck!!!
Nothing I could do about it. To make this long story a bit shorter, the weather cleared, the tarp was taken off and the ceremony started just 15 minutes late. There were 72 former Yankees in attendance and the introductions took almost an hour. It was very moving. They had only time to play one inning before it was time for the regular game to begin. Its starting time couldn’t be delayed, of course.
And the game started on time and I resigned to seeing it without the benefit of the John Sterling broadcast. Oh well ...
Seated behind me was a rather large guy in his 50s and his teenage son. He is a partial season ticket holder but he usually sits with The Bleacher Creatures in the right field bleachers. He had gotten his seats for this game though a friend. He was listening to the game. At the end of the first inning we struck up a conversation and I mentioned that I always listen to the game but that I had left my Walkman at home and I held my ear pods in my hand. Now what happened next is amazing ...
He said ... “wait a minute” ... then he reached into a paper bag and brought out another small AM radio. “You can use this,” he said. It turned out that his son had left his ear pods at home. I offered him/them mine and the guy said, “no ... you go ahead and listen to the game, my son and I will share my ear pod.” How about that? Later during the game I offered to buy him a beer or a soda but he very pleasantly declined.
The game itself was great. The Angels got off to an early 2 run lead due to some lousy Yankee fielding but Moose recovered and then pitched shutout ball through the 7th inning and the Yankees won 8-2.
Also seated behind me was a family of 4 from Nevada who had come to NYC for the sole purpose of seeing their first and last game in The House That Ruth Built. Their 10 year old son is a huge ARod fan and he had brought a sign with him about wanting ARod to hit a home run. The kid didn’t show it on A-Rod’s first at bat and he struck out. On his second at bat the kid raised the sign and we all had a good laugh and then .... bam ... ARod hit a bomb to right center field and we all went crazy and I took the picture. This will be a moment this kid will never ever forget. Awesome.
I got off the subway at the 59th Street station to walk over to the Apple Store at 59th and 5th to see about making an appointment with their “Genius Bar” to try to get the iBook up and running before I leave for SC. The Apple Store and the “Genius Bar” operates 24x7. The store was jam-packed. I talked with a very nice young female rep and was told that the first appointment time was on Monday, so I made an appointment for the first available time, 4:15am, yes, that is correct, 4:15am. As I was about to leave she whispered to me that it might work if I would come back between 1:30 and 2:00am tonight and I might, just might, be able to sneak in between appointments. I thanked her and walked back to the apartment.
Yes, I would definitely give it a shot.
When I got back to the apartment it was around 8:00 and I was delighted to see/hear that the 30s gal in the apartment directly underneath me is having an outdoor BBQ party and it was in full swing. She did have the grill properly placed in the middle of the yard so that wouldn’t be a problem but ... yeah ... they are loud and are having fun and there ain’t nothing I can or will do about it, so ... hopefully they will be done by 1:00am.
I went over to the iBook and just for the hell of it, plugged it in and hit the power button and ... it booted up and everything is running fine. I have no clue what the problem is or whether it will recur but for now everything is OK. Isn’t life strange?
So, I fixed a huge fruit and cheese plate, downloaded some pictures and began working on this much too long post, which I will now end with a simple ...
Go Yankees!!!
Billi Pod
wanjr@aol.com
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